2010 Chesterfield Public Library Summer Reading Program

The Chesterfield Public Library dove into fun this summer with the CHILIS “Make a Splash - Read” theme. To kick off our program, The Mariposa Museum shared their beautiful collection from Oceania and taught us about the Oceanic people. We made our own boomerang to take home. Jerry Schneider opened up the colorful world of dragonflies to us and we left with a dragonfly t-shirt we made ourselves! We splashed in the nearby pond under supervision of Wildlife biologist Gary Pelton and discovered all of the creatures that live in and around the water. We trekked to the beach to watch a live Wind Surfing presentation. We experimented with water density, buoyancy, surface tension and made giant bubbles. But most of all, we brought kids into the library all summer to read! On average, the children who turned in paperwork for the Summer Reading Program read over 47 books each! Each book they read was recorded on a wave and our waves successfully reached around the entire library.

New to the Chesterfield Library was our Teen Summer Reading Program “Make Waves at your Library”, an offshoot of our new Teen Corner. We were pleased to have over 20 teens sign up and kicked off our program with an after- hours party which featured a life-sized Clue game and root beer floats. Our highlight teen event was comedian mime Robert Rivest. We also had a frozen T-shirt contest, pirate adventure night, ice cream sundae social, splashed outside with water balloons and water guns, and amazed each other with water experiments and huge bubbles! The teens also practiced and performed water themed skits for the younger children and their parents at the final wrap up party on August 16th. The teen program allowed this age group to feel comfortable and confident at their library, broadened some friendships, and introduced them to the new Young Adult space created just for them. They also managed to read over 9,000 minutes (165 hours) as a group!!

All in all, our summer reading program was a splashing success!